Stonewalling The Public

Dark clouds hanging over Sunshine Week cast a shadow on the First Amendment

What’s worrying to journalists is, after years of sitting largely idle on the books, the Illinois eavesdropping law is starting to produce arrests.

A Chicago woman was charged under the law after recording police officers whom she thought were preventing her from filing a sexual harassment complaint, and a Normal, Ill., man was charged with recording police during a traffic stop.

A jury found in favor of the woman in the first case, and a prosecutor dropped the second, thinking the law in this case was worse than the violation.

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